Discussion Board Guidelines Updated January 13, 2010

[Chris]

Visions Fantastic Discussion Board Guidelines

Welcome to the VF Discussion Boards at VisionsFantastic.com

We strive to offer a good Discussion Forum, but at the same time, we have to keep some semblance of order. We have put together a listing of our Guidelines which we expect participants to abide by. Certain guidelines (like spamming or other extreme abuses) result in immediate site banning. Other guideline infractions result in a warning and varying degrees of consequences therefafter.

1. No commercial or website advertising, and Linking Policy

You cannot post a message advertising your website (or someone else's website, i.e. "come visit"). If your link applies to a topic already begun by another user, you may post a link. Your signature may also contain a link to your website, but commercial advertising, EBAY listings, or any link where you can earn a commission is not allowed. If you'd like to point out a link of interest on another site, make sure you link to a HTML page where the item resides and DO NOT link directly to images, video or audio clips. The following are exceptions to the above rule:

- Links to Youtube and Google Video content as long as it's appropriate and complies with VF Guidelines (no profanity, drug/alcohol use, violent activity, nudity, sexually oriented content, etc).

Linking Policy:

Links in your signature, homepage link or links posted in the shoutbox must be in good taste and be family friendly and appropriate. Adult, crude or otherwise inappropriate (sexual, racial, alcohol/drug related) content is not allowed on VF. Offensive links will be removed and, in some cases, may result in the banning of your account.

(a) The Rumor Mill

Typically Internet Rumors should be discussed in the Rumor Mill. Specific forums exist for both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World to avoid confusion. Other websites can be discussed here, but remember to refrain from personal attacks on other websites and persons' who operate these websites. Linking to specific articles is acceptable here.

Unless a statement has been officially announced by 'The Company', (through press release or the official Disney Blog), it is considered Rumor. Statements like "It's Official!" should only be reserved for these kinds of announcements.

2. (a) No foul or abusive language, flaming or trolling.

Visions Fantastic Discussion Boards are meant to be family friendly. Refrain from using profanity or crude language. Most of the material is filtered through our censor, but attempting to bypass the censor (misspelling, spaces, etc) is not allowed. Bullying, harassment or general disregard for other users or staff is not allowed. If a Mod or Admin gives you a direct instruction, not following it or taking it seriously may result in the banning of your account. Name calling, insulting remarks, or insulting a large group of people though stereotype or broad generalizations isn't allowed.

- (i) Maked profanity or vulgarity is not allowed, either.

(b) Harassment and Personal Attacks:

If you feel you're being harassed, avoid getting into heated confrontations and report the behavior to a Moderator or Admin and we will assist with the situation . A personal attack would be a comment about you, directed at you, personally. For instance:

"Rocket Rods coming back would be a stupid idea' - would be acceptable.

"You're an idiot if you think the Rocket Rods coming back is a good idea!" is NOT acceptable.

Report the behavior - however, if you choose to respond, staff is less likely to step in on your behalf if you've reported the posting.

- (i) Flaming and Trolling

"Flaming" and "Trolling" are fairly self-explanatory terms, and this activity is not allowed here. Flaming and Trolling involve people intentionally posting things that will get a rise out of people and potentially cause others to break guidelines. An example of this would be someone posting the following statement in the VMK Forum:

"Anyone who uses VMK is an idiot and has no life"

While the statement does not personally identfy a particular user, it's a personal attack (on the members of that particular forum) and is considered trolling because of its obvious confrontational meanings.

(c) What a YAGE?

'Yage' is short for 'Yet Another Grand Exit". Occasionally people may feel they are no longer welcome at VF, or for whatever reasons of their own, they decide to leave VF. Posting a "Yage" is considered trolling. A Yage usually directs the 'blame' on somebody or the entire website community. People often post a 'Yage' to simply see how people respond. The responses vary from 'Oh no.. Don't leave" to "Please leave NOW!".

A "Yage" following the above criteria may be deleted or moved to "Never Never Land" and closed. There is no point in discussing these topics and encouraging personal attacks.

(d) Backstage or Unauthorized Photos and Cast Members

Unauthorized photos of Disneyland Property are not allowed on VF, nor can be they linked to. Unauthorized photos would include backstage areas of the Disneyland Resort, The Disneyland Resort after park hours (where the entire park becomes 'backstage') or any unauthorized photo or video where photography or videotaping is not allowed. These photos and/or video can create potential legal problems when they involve cast members or unauthorized photo or videotaping backstage.

- (i) Most of the time when you get Evac'd off a ride, they ask that you not take pictures. For this reason we do not allow evac photos to be posted (even if the CM said it was okay that I took some photos).

- (ii) - Cast Members should never be referenced in a public forum by name. This, even though the comments may be positive, may affect their job. ("Bryan at Pizza Port gave me extra meatballs FOR FREE!").

3. "Bumping" your post by posting multiple messages just to keep the message current is a violation of our Guidelines . You will be warned once, but additional infractions may result in suspension or eventual banning. Multiple posting just to increase your post count is also a disruption (also see "Flooding" below) and incidents of this will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

4. Stay on topic! Topics will tend to go off-topic naturally from time to time, but if you deliberately or repeatedly try to steer a discussion off-topic, you are be in violation of our Guidelines. Steering a topic off-topic is a passive-aggressive action and is considered disruptive. Topics generally that are not Disneyland related are moved to a special "Off topic" discussion area. Please use this area for off-topic posts or other subjects you'd like to discuss. Internet rumors and speculation will usually be moved to the Rumor Mill.

5. Multiple names, accounts, etc, are not allowed. Sometimes people will attempt to create multiple accounts to cause mischief on the boards, or create another account after they've been banned. General rule of thumb, once somebody from your household is banned, the entire household gets banned as well. Don't let other people sign into VF using your username - when they cause mischief it becomes YOUR responsibility.

Sock Puppets

A Sock Puppet is an additional account created after the initial account has been banned. Anyone caught using a sock puppet is immediately banned and their IP address may be blocked.

6. The discussion or the distribution of copyrighted or trademarked materials are prohibited. Do not discuss where to obtain particular materials or ask that materials be sent to you.

7. Flooding or otherwise posting an unreasonable amount of posts or replies is a violation of our Guidelines. You will be warned if you're posting too much. We realize new users typically want to enter into several conversations, but replying to multiple messages over the course of several days is considered 'flooding' and 'disruption" and is against guidelines. The following are considered typical:

Typical User: 2-8 posts a day
Flooding User: 20+ posts a day

8. Impersonating a Visions Fantastic moderator, webmaster or Admin is grounds for immediate banning, in most cases. Only staff members are allowed to enforce VF Guidelines. If somebody is being disruptive, contact an active staff member (listed in the Currently Online section in ORANGE type). Problems can usually be handled within a matter of minutes this way.

9. Posting a graphic, video file or audio file that is "hot linked" from another website without the webmaster's permission is not allowed. When using Avatar photos, either use the server space provided on the website, or obtain your own server space. Leaching your avatar off another server costs the other site money. On the same note, you may not "hot link" to your own avatar for use on another forum.

10. Posting potentially libel material against somebody is a violation of our Guidelines. Posting personal attacks against other individuals, whether they are on this website or not, is not allowed. For instance, you may criticize a website's CONTENT, but you shouldn't criticize the individual who wrote it.

11. In general, information that is posted should be taken as rumor until it has been verified by a press release or some official statement by the Company (Disney). Topics that become based on heresay will be placed in the Rumor Mill.

12. The Visions Fantastic Staff reserves the right to handle any situation with any action seen fit by said Staff member. If you feel that a situation has been handled unjustly, you may contact the Admin (Chris) via email at webmaster at visionsfantastic.com .... Be sure to include your username in any correspondance.

13. Disruptive Behaviors - Patterns of ongoing disruptive behaviors online (discussion boards, chat, shoutbox) may result in your account being banned.

If the staff feels that disruptive behaviors cannot be controlled by a particular user, that user may have his/her account banned from VF.

Disruptive Behavior may or may not include the breaking of particular VF guidelines but includes an overall assessment by VF staff. If the staff is in consensus that a particular user is being disruptive, based on our decision, a user can be banned. (There will be no further discussions on the subject once a user has been banned).

Necroposting

Topics after they've run their course simply become part of the archives on VF. However, old topics shouldn't be resurrected after a period of time (usually a few months). If the topic is not current, simply begin a new topic if you have something you'd like to share. Bringing back old topics is confusing and the people involved in that conversation have likely moved on and may not want to discuss it further.

Avatars, Signatures and Graphics Posting

A1. Avatars must be no more than 200 pixels wide with a maximum height of 250 pixels. Uploaded avatars must not exceed 64k. Use care when using remotely-hosted images and/or animations. Large animations (filesize) may create slowdowns for users on a slower connection.

A2. Graphics used in signatures must not be larger than 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels high. They must not exceed 64k. You may only have ONE image in your signature with up to 4 lines of regular text OR up to 8 lines of single-spaced regular sized text. Please use care when using large size fonts in your signature and make sure they don't exceed the length of six lines of regular (10pt) text. Your signature cannot contain anything that can be construed as hateful or abusive to another person, company or organization.

A3. Javascript or other coding is not allowed in your signature. A countdown timer is available in your PROFILE.

A4. When posting a graphic in your message, please try to keep the image to less than 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high. When possible, post a small thumbnail image and link to the corresponding image in the Visions Gallery . Each user has 6 megabytes of free space in the Visions Gallery. You can also attach a photo to a message and it will create the thumbnail for you.

A5. Spelling and Grammar. VF is not the Grammar Police, nor are we a educational institution, however, proper spelling and grammar are vital in a medium such as a Discussion Forum. We encourage you to check your post over in the 'Preview' mode and check for spelling and obvious grammatical errors (A nifty spell check feature is available to those using Internet Explorer). You also have 24 hours after you post a message in which to edit your post. If Mods and Admins begin to see a pattern of misspellings/poor grammar, you will be notified. If the pattern persists, its likely you will lose your posting privileges on VF, or your posts may have to be approved by a Moderator before they appear on VF. In extreme cases (where you have not responded to a VF Staff Member regarding the situation), you may be banned without warning.

A6. Your online safety is VERY important to us. Therefore we take matters such as harassment, people who blatantly lie about information they've submitted to VF (like their real age), and behavior that we deem to be socially unacceptable (sometimes referred to as "creepy"). If you are being harassed or bothered, your first step is to use the IGNORE list, which lets you block all postings from a particular user. If they are bothering you via PM, chat, etc, politely tell them you wish no further contact with them. If they continue, contact a Mod or Admin.

A7. Attending VF Events such as our Digital Scavenger Hunt: If you choose to attend a VF Event sponsored by the website, you do so with the understanding that you will conduct yourself in a mature manner at the parks. Poor behavior reflects badly on the website and you may not be able to take part in future events. Follow all park rules and give other visitors to the park proper respect.

[Chris]

The Guidelines have been updated as of October 23rd, 2009.

Please note the new additions at the bottom - regarding behavior at VF events and what may be deemed harassment or "creepy" behaviors on the boards.

[Chris]

We have some new additions to the Guidelines.

Necroposting (repeatedly posting to old topics) is now a guideline violation.

Sharing CM names is no longer allowed (even positive experiences).

Guidelines updated January 13, 2010